Dad pleads for help to find daughter Catie Miller of Dartmouth

John Miller walks along the Natal Day parade route Monday passing out posters with his missing daughter Catie’s photo. (INGRID BULMER / Staff)

Were you near Windmill Road in Dartmouth on the afternoon of July 15?

A day before, a few blocks away, on Lahey Road, a 50-year-old man had been robbed and shot in the torso.

And that Tuesday exactly three weeks ago was just after the fatal Cabot Trail bus crash.

But John Miller is asking all Nova Scotians to comb through their memories of that day in case they saw his daughter, Catie.

Catie Miller

Catie, whose full name is Catherine, sent Miller’s wife a text at 11:11 a.m. that day and hasn’t been seen since. The 29-year-old had recently moved to an apartment near the corner of Windmill Road and Stairs Street.

Her family hadn’t learned the details of whatever new daily routine she had established in the neighbourhood, Miller said.

Catie doesn’t have a car and she usually travels by bus or taxi, her father said. He doesn’t think she has been in the habit of going downtown very often, mostly staying closer to home.

“As far as we know she was at her apartment” that morning, he said. “She had only been in that apartment for a few months, so we’re not really sure where she went from there.”

Without much information to go on, Miller and his family have turned to social media and more old-fashioned pleas for help. On Monday, about a dozen volunteers handed out posters of Catie along the Natal Day parade route.

They asked every person who took a poster to put it up and then tell them via Facebook where they had posted it, so Catie’s family will know which areas are covered. The Facebook page set up for the search is called Find Catherine Miller and has almost 3,000 members.

“It’s very emotional to talk to a stranger and tell them that your daughter is missing, especially for three weeks, but it was very well-received by everybody I spoke to,” Miller said. “Everybody said they would do something with the poster and visit the Facebook page and pass it on and share.”

Catie, who is trained as an electrician, has a three-year-old son. She has struggled with depression in the past, but her family had no reason to think it had been a problem recently.

In fact, the day she disappeared she made an appointment for July 28, sounding excited about it, Miller said. She didn’t show up at the appointment and there have been no new leads.

“She’s never taken off before, so this is out of character,” Miller said.

He said he is grateful for the public’s help as the family brainstorms new ways to get Catie’s photo widely distributed.

Miller is described as five-foot-eight and 130 pounds. She has grey eyes and brown shoulder-length hair that’s often worn in a ponytail. Police have asked anyone with information to call 902-490-5020.